How can you structure a technical presentation to ensure information retention?

Always tie a technical capability back to business value. Non technical people will then understand what the benefit is to their customer and technical people will be happy to learn how the technology advances the business. There is always business value, or we wouldn't be doing it.

As we always speak technical jargons to people we work with, it is important to consider layman individuals who do not have that ability to analyse the issues as proficiently as we do. Tailor the communication and simplify it for them.

An example of the importance of knowing your audience is that, you are presenting a topic on “Personal Financing “ . Your approach will be completely different if your audience is a group of students from the office executives .

Communication will be simplified when catering to the audience members. Knowing the audience means also putting oneself into their perspective, their background, what motivates them. This goes way beyond just knowing that is their role in the organization or project.

With the premise of knowing your audience that many people have already talked about, let's say we take an example of a simple/common scenario where you're presenting about one of the services in your tech stack. Start off by creating a flow of useful information around it, that way your audience will follow the journey with you throughout your talk. The following cues might help: What is the problem statement? What is the service doing? What is powering it? Where/How is it running? What is the outcome? What is being done with the output? Feel free to do a technical deep dive around the questions and your audience will have a good time learning something new!!

An example I have seen is nothing is technical in presentations , we must have an easy approach to convey our business ideas or suggestions. No one wants to put an extra mind to understand technical things,just keep it easy and understandable.

Throughout your presentation, you’ll need to include relevant stories to highlight important data and points. Technical presentations using complex data can easily become overkill for your audience. As the presenter, the onus is on you to make it relevant and relatable. Adding anecdotes and stories that bring the data to life will go a long way in making your presentation useful—and even inspiring!

We must carefully determine the aim of the presentation, before getting into content creation. What do you want your audience to learn or do after the presentation? Are you introducing a new concept, instructing them on a specific ability, or persuading them to take a particular approach? Having a clear objective will influence your material selection and presentation structure. It will ensure that every part of your presentation contributes to reaching your targeted objective.

Technical presentations are always data heavy. Hence, the content should be organized in a manner that's easy for everyone to understand. Also, the presentations should not represent endless data as the audience may not have the attention span to grasp a volley of numbers thrown at them. Content should be: 1. Insights driven based on relevant numbers 2. Short, simple and crisp 3. Sticking to the topic at hand

In my experience an engaging and impactful presentation is one that starts with a brief background of the topic not too long just enough to provide context. It then flows through by making sure there is an combination of examples,infographics and scenario based situations which can be helpful to draw the attention of the audience. Technical presentations are often complex when they don’t need to be.Often times also ensuring to answer some common FAQ’s can help the audience grasp the presentation better.

I've found the 'Rule of 3' to be very useful. Pick out the top 3 things that is of importance to the audience. Simplify it, reiterate it. While story telling is important, keeping in mind the audience's attention span is crucial.

Using clear and simple language helps the presentation to be tailored to all audiences, whatever their knowledge level is , in addition using visuals, diagrams, screenshots helps simplify complex words . Additionally presentation must at least follow the 6*5 role approximately, 6 words a line * 5 lines per slide.

Organization is your friend. Tell them what you are going to tell them. Then tell them. Then tell them what you told them. Keep the language simple. And don't put so many words on your slides that people pay more attention reading than listening to you.

The quickest way to lose an audience’s attention during a presentation is to have complex visuals that are not understood or take too much time to decipher. Visuals must be designed to support what the speaker is saying. Start by making your visual simple, easy to understand, and have minimal verbiage, so the audience immediately understands the content. Use annotations, arrows, or comment boxes in your visuals to grab the audience’s attention and direct them to a specific data point or pattern. You want the audience focused on you, not spending time analyzing a visual. Remember, you want your visuals and data to tell a story that grabs their attention, engages and informs them, is memorable, and moves them to the goal of the presentation.

Some ways to simplify visuals in a presentation are: - Use a clean design/theme with limited colours. - Minimize text and focus only on key points. - Maintain a balanced layout to avoid visual clutter. - Choose a logical flow for your slides. - incorporate ample white space to enhance clarity.

Absolutely! Understanding your audience is key to effective presentation. Their knowledge level dictates the depth of detail you give, their interest affects how you maintain engagement, while their motivation, needs and concerns guide your tone & content. Tailoring to this ensures success

I have exceptional data analytics skills, and the way I see things makes sense to me; however, the audience has to be considered when sharing information. A detailed statistical analysis is best conveyed by transforming the research into a story. Presenting in a fashion that is easy to understand will help your audience comprehend the information, and, hopefully, your presentation will lead to them taking action.

Determining who is your audience is really key to start thinking on a tailored-made message you want to convey and how you want to deliver it. Then, envisioning what is the main thing you want people to walk away from your presentation will guide you through the details of the execution. Finally, as part of delivering a good presentation, it's helpful to use something your intended target can relate to as almost they can totally identify themselves to your motivations, challenges and learnings will make them more keen to know more about technical details you're going to share.